The Nameless
by Tragic Mercury
Summary: While one might not have expected waking up in the world Azeroth to be a joyful occurrence, the siblings Ruth and Zane never though it would be quite this disastrous. OC, self insert.
1. Chapter 1

"Help! Please, oh God, Allah, Buddha- the almighty freakin' Internet! Please help me I don't want to die again!"

Let me introduce my brother, Zane. He's an outstanding fella, sweet like sugar, stubborn as a mule and I often refer to him as 'My Brother Lionheart'- referring to a children's book I used to read as a child. My brother, however, is more like the lion from 'The Wizard of Oz'- before the meeting of Oz, that is. He's contradicting like that.

Speaking of lions, we were currently being chased by a close cousin of that particular feline species- a leopard to be exact- and whereas I was saving my energy for something productive like _running for dear life_ , my brother for some reason, felt the need to voice his distress. In that regard, I guess he was also kind of like the scarecrow, not with the most solid head on his shoulders, if you catch my drift.

Perhaps I was not all there in the head either, though, seeing as my mind was spinning with children's stories when I was in the middle of running from a deadly predator…

* * *

"Oh god, that's disgusting." I commented while applying pressure to the profusely bleeding wound on my brother's leg. The white leopard had unfortunately managed to snatch Zane's leg with its claws shortly before it gave up the hunting and disappeared in the opposite direction.

I never knew predators would actually give up like that, considering the few feral animal shows I'd seen on Animal Planet once. According to those shows, these kitties were supposed to run after you until it caught you or you drifted away in a powerful river or fell to your death from a cliff or something. Either way, it gave up when you were dead.

Odd, indeed.

"Here, hold this," I told my brother and he quickly complied by taking the once white but now red cloth from me and continuing to apply pressure to the wound on his leg. Exhausted, I laid down in the snowy ground and closed my eyes while I focused on my breathing for a while. What a messed up situation we had gotten ourselves in.

The last thing I could remember before waking up in this unfamiliar place had been bright lights, gasps for air, then a very heavy thud- a crash. Everything beyond that caused me a headache to try and remember, yet I vaguely recalled pain, blood and… my brother.

He had been dead.

After that, there was nothing. There was nothing until I woke up five days ago on an unfamiliar, icy riverbank, dressed in unfamiliar clothes, with a killer headache and my brother- my very much alive brother- looking down at me worriedly.

As if all that wasn't a weird enough experience already, the following days, we saw… well, frankly we saw some shit.

We'd seen tiny people reaching maybe the height of my knees, playing with fire in their hands. We'd seen slightly taller and bulkier people with impressive beards carrying rifles on their shoulder with a black pig as their hunting partner; and then there were the weird rituals performed in broad daylight that seemed to have the purpose of summoning- I'm definitely loosing it- demons out of thin air.

So yeah, last few days had been strange for the lack of a better word.

It was maybe around an hour or so that passed in blessed silence before I turned to my brother again, who had been lost in his own thoughts,

"How's your leg?"

Zane jerked at the sound of my voice, so deep in thought as he was, but soon enough loosened the grip on the cloth on his wound to get a better look at it. "Well, my pants are ruined, that's for sure." I rolled my eyes but didn't comment. "I actually think it's healing," He then added.

I raised an eyebrow at that, shifting to a sitting position. Wounds didn't heal that fast, and definitely not in a matter of minutes- or that was what I thought before I looked at the wound on my brother's leg, gaping.

The wound that had been profusely bleeding before was now only three claw-like scars.

"It's weird, right?" Zane said, grinning, but I didn't reply. 'Weird' was a heavy understatement. This kind of quick healing only proved further my theory regarding our whereabouts, my theory that we might have somehow ended up in a different reality.

Some may argue that the sight of people in dark robes summoning demons out of thin air, and midgets casting fireballs like it was nobody's business would be enough to convince me that I was no longer in my same old universe, but I had always had what I would like to call a healthy dose of skepticism.

I had already scratched out the possibility that this was a dream (painful revelations, no need to specify), so the next theories in line were that I was under an incredibly strong hypnosis that allowed me to feel side burns after running half a marathon, or that we had somehow ended up in another reality. Excuse me if I wanted to hold on to the last bit of my sanity and deny that very theory.

"Can you walk?" I asked after a few moments and Zane's answer was to stand up and jog in place "I think I can do better than that," he replied cheekily, to which I simply rolled my eyes before standing up as well. I didn't bother to tell him to be careful of reopening his wounds, not seeing the point of doing so. "Let's continue then. But let's try to stay _on_ the road and _out_ of trouble, yeah?"

"I hear you," Zane agreed with a meek grin and with that, we continued on our way.

* * *

A quick glance at the sun told me that it would start to set in maybe a couple of hours. That meant that we needed to start looking for a safe-looking place to settle down for the night. The thought sent a chill down my spine because even though I was strangely not cold in the snow while we were walking, the simple cotton shirt on my back wasn't quite enough to keep me warm during the night.

Our usual sleeping spots during these last five days had been either abandoned caves or up in a large tree. Both were uncomfortable, as one could imagine, yet sad as it was to admit, I had kind of forgotten the sensation of a warm bed.

I had found that most of my memories before the… crash… were blurry, as if they were covered in a fog. I remembered most, but they were difficult to find within the haze and caused me a headache to dig after. I wondered if it was the same with Zane, but for some reason I got a knot in my stomach every time I though of bringing it up, so I didn't.

After we woke up five days ago we had been focusing on staying alive and getting to a safe place, preferably with civilization. It was almost as if we were being pulled into some direction: neither one of us really questioned where we were going and even though it didn't seem like we were making a particular process, we didn't stop and talk about it. I had thought about it, of course, but almost as soon as I did I would start thinking about something else and forget about it in a matter of seconds. It wouldn't be the first time my short attention span got the best of me.

My feet were a little sore after all the walking, and my hands were freezing because I had no gloves to warm them. Luckily, however, I did have some sort of skin shoes on my feet. They were rather thin, and didn't keep water away, but they still kept my feet warm which was enough for me at the moment.

Strange, I had never been one to count my blessings, but these last few days it had been practically the only thing I found myself doing. It was almost irksome.

"Hey, sis, isn't that…?"

I pulled myself out of my deep thoughts to see what had caught my brother's attention and noticed that he was pointing at something straight ahead. With furrowed brows, I let my gaze travel to whatever he was pointing at and stared. It took me a while before my eyes opened to their full size in realization.

"…Is that a road?" I asked in a small voice, not taking my eyes off of the stone bricks arranged neatly in a long line, reaching further than my eyes could see in both directions.

A few moments passed before I slowly turned to look at my brother, my face still one of disbelief. This thing was just too good to be true, we must have been hallucinating from the hunger or something. While we hadn't gone through five days without food, the portions we allowed ourselves to eat had gotten smaller and smaller. Luckily- or perhaps strangely- enough we had woken up with backpacks next to us, each containing a bottle of water, two loafs of bread and some cheese,

Zane, once he managed to rip his eyes from the stone worm in front of us, looked back at me and in a second, his face was stretched into the most brilliant smile.

I was about to tell him that we shouldn't be too hopeful, but managed to stop myself. Being the reasonable one was fine and dandy, but that didn't mean I had to be a mood killer.

The right corner of my mouth stretched slightly upwards as I allowed myself a small gleam of hope after all this time. My half-smile didn't last for long however, as I suddenly found the grip of my brother's hand around my wrist and before I could question it, he had started running, dragging my stumbling form after him.

"Wait up!" I tried calling a few times, as well as "Slow down!" and "Where are you going?!" but my idiotic brother wouldn't listen and kept running, not loosening his grip around my wrist the slightest.

We must have ran for at least ten minutes, probably longer, when he finally stopped. I jerked my hand out of his, smacked him on the head, which he reacted to with a yelp; then I bent over, resting my hands on my knees and _breathed._

"Idiot," I puffed in between gasps but he only chuckled. I was about to hit him again when I realized Zane wasn't even looking at me but straight forward. Following his gaze, I stared for a while and then felt my jaw slacken.

In front of us was a town. Civilization. Houses made of stone, chimneys puffing smoke and the wonderful smell of warm food. I could have cried. Heck, I felt my eyes water at the sight at the same time my mouth watered at the smell.

Instead of crying and/or drooling, however, I stood back up and tugged at my brother's sleeve before I began walking towards the town, Zane quietly following.

It was strangely familiar, this town. I didn't remember ever being there before but still I felt as if I knew that place. There were so many people, most of them dwarfs and… gnomes. I could deny it all I wanted but those little creatures were gnomes, I knew.

The other things I also "just knew" was that inside the big, round building to our left were blacksmiths and armorers. Armorers, I couldn't believe I was realistically thinking that word. On the building to our right, I knew, were large beds, plenty of people and warm ale. I began to shiver and my stomach twisted uncomfortably. I felt sick, tired, confused and I couldn't believe what was happening around me but heavens help me, here I was and it was as real as fireworks on new year's.

This was Kharanos, the small town below the dwarfen capital of Iron Forge.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Thanks for reading this far! This is my first WoW fanfiction so please forgive me if I get any facts wrong- and if I do, please tell me. It would be a great help.

I Have planned this story out so, so very far and I really hope many of you will feel like sticking around for the journey. If you would also be so kind as to review and/or follow I would really appreciate it.


	2. Chapter 2

"No way…" I heard my brother mutter quietly under a breath of realization and found myself unable to reply. Suddenly someone bumped into me and only then did I realize how badly I was shaking because I didn't find my footing again and began to stumble. Zane managed to catch me just before I fell and bellowed a "hey!" After the tipsy dwarf who had bumped into me. It fell on deaf ears and I was glad.

"Thanks" I muttered and shrug myself out of his hold, though he seemed somewhat doubtful of my ability to stand on my own two feet. I wasn't sure I could myself but I had a chance to prove my brother wrong and you can bet your ass I took it.

"Do you know where this is?" Zane asked excitedly.

"Yes, Zane, I do know where this is and you are damn right there is no way we can be here."

"Well it seems like we _are_ here. Sis, this is WoW. Like MMO, World of-"

"I said I know where this is!" I hissed at him and he shut right up, although not without a scowl.

I looked quickly around and it didn't seem like anyone had been listening, thankfully. I then turned back to Zane with a lowered a head "This isn't possible, Zane. We're dreaming. Maybe you're dreaming, maybe it's me, but that's the only reason for this to be happening."

"Well this is the longest fucking dream I ever had, I can tell you that" Zane snorted, clearly not a fan of my desperate theory.

"Anyway," I shot him a glare, "let's go to the inn. Maybe if we sleep in a bed we'll wake up in our own, okay?" Besides, I was exhausted. Zane simply shrugged at that which I took as an affirmation and we made our way to the large stone building to our right.

The smell of food and beer pounded on us as soon as we walked through the door and we both stopped in a daze, nostrils flaring and stomachs growling. What I would give for a warm meal right now, I thought, almost whimpering. We'd better find someone who worked here if we wanted to get some service, so I nudged Zane in the side, who jumped out of his daze before smiling sheepishly at me and began walking through the noisy crowd.

There were all kinds of dwarfs in the inn and then the occasional gnome; many drinking, almost all of them talking, struggling to be heard over the next person. It was loud and one of the many things I couldn't deal with was loudness. I fought a grimace as I followed my brother through the mass of people, focusing on his back. Had he always been this tall?

It didn't take us long to find the innkeeper. He was standing near the bar, a brown-haired dwarf with long, loose hair and an impressive beard and mustache. In his hands was a beer mug which he was polishing feverishly while looking around the inn with careful eyes.

"Excuse me," My brother said, and the sharp eyes of the dwarf immediately focused in on my brother, with a single glance directed at me behind him.

"Aye, how can I help ye?"

"We were wondering if you had any rooms left- "

"Two rooms." I whispered behind him.

"-uh, yeah, two rooms for me and my—"

"One room with two beds is fine too."

-"Yes, _b_ _ut one room with two beds will work too._ " The last part was said with glare directed at me for my interference while he was talking. I diverted my eyes, not really sorry for helping.

The dwarf's face seemed to lighten up the slightest as he eyed the two of us, "Aye, I have two rooms with single beds. That'll be three silver for the both of ye."

I felt cold sweat gather in my arm pits as I realized that I had no money. How could I have missed such an obvious flaw? I felt the warm flush of shame wash over me and felt my fingers cooling considerably as they always did when I was nervous. A quick glance at Zane told me that he hadn't thought of that himself either and I was sure I could have liquefied into a puddle of goo right there.

"Ah, but yer lucky 'cause someone has already paid for yer stay. It's good to know the right people, I usually don't book out me rooms beforehand." He winked at us and gave us each a key to a room. I didn't understand and that wasn't the first time today. But instead of asking, you know, communicating with the stranger, I just thanked him very quietly and began walking to where the dwarf gestured, down into the cellar where the rooms where.

The rooms where all down in the wine cellar and I noticed that my room and Zane's were right across from one another. The loudness from upstairs was considerably dampened for some reasons but I was too tired to wonder why.

"This is so weird." Zane commented as we both stood dumbly in the middle of the wine cellar and I simply nodded for a lack of a better response.

"Is the uh… the room okay?" I asked him and his reply was to look at his key for a second before walking to the door to his room and unlocking it. I followed Zane to his room and almost fainted at the sight of a large, soft-looking bed in a huge, cozy room. There was a fireplace and everything.

"Nothing lethal that I can see," Zane said with a small grin and I simply nodded in response before turning to my own room. Thankfully, Zane followed without me asking him to and we both looked inside once I had unlocked the room. It was exactly the same as my brother's, except just mirrored.

I sighed. We needed to talk. I needed answers… I needed to wake up.

But right then and there, all I wanted to do was sleep. "Talk tomorrow?" I asked my brother and looked at him from beneath my far too long bangs. They almost looked black in this light. Or maybe my hair was just this dirty. Ew.

"Yeah," Zane agreed, "Whoever wakes up first has to wake up the other, okay?" The corner of my mouth quirked up that. It was an old rule we'd used as kids whenever we went on a trip somewhere so we wouldn't be lonely in a strange place. "Okay" I replied and bid a goodnight.

We closed our doors at the same time and I remembered thinking just before my door closed that I really didn't remember him having ever had any beard on his face, yet I shrugged the thought away and turned back to my room.

As I viewed the bed I realized how cold I was. Weird how it hadn't registered before. I stood there hugging my form for a while before I trusted myself to move, hearing the squishing of wet leather under my feet. The shoes were still wet, of course. Unfortunately, they hadn't magically dried on their own.

I then realized that being where I was, magically drying shoes didn't sound all that far fetched…

I groaned, not wanting my mind to go there as tired as I was and tried to hum a song to clear my mind as I sat on the bed. I managed to slip the skin shoes off my feet using my toes and then decided to take off my pants as well. It had been so long since I had been able to sleep barelegged under a warm cover. It's one of the small things in life you never think you'll miss until you don't have the luxury. I kept my knee-long shirt on, however, as I climbed into bed and dragged the fluffy covers up to my chin.

And I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

" _Tell my mother, tell my father: I've done the best I can!_

 _To make them realize this is my life_

 _I hope they understand!_

 _I'm not angry, I'm just saying..._ "

Huge gasps of air filled the vehicle for the big finale " _Sometimes goodbye is a second chance!_ "

I laughed after our big performance. I loved singing in the car with my brother, and I knew by the look on his face that he was having fun as well. I tightened my hand into a fist and brought it up to my lips as if I was holding a microphone,

"This was yet another performance by-" I held my hand towards my brother, cuing for him to finish but he only looked at me questioningly so I brought the imaginary microphone back to my lips "-Brobro and Sissy! You heard it first here in the dark grey Hyundai!"

I laughed again, being the funniest person alive and all, and before long my brother was chuckling beside me as well.

We were driving back home from a family reunion; a weekend of camping, eating, and chatting with relatives we didn't really know. It was around 2 A.M. but the sky was still bright from the midnight sun; we could tell, however, that it was the middle of the night because of the lack of traffic on the country road and the chilly, damp air that was coming in from the broken window in the back of the car.

I had been driving for about two hours and the best thing to do to stay awake and pass time as we drove was to sing with old songs we knew all the lyrics to.

I was having too much fun that I kind of forgot the responsibility I was holding while under the steering wheel. I was too focused on getting my brother to laugh more that I didn't notice that the car was turning ever so slightly towards the opposing lane. We had been on the open road for so long that I had kind of forgotten that we weren't alone in the world.

It happened so quickly, and yet it was as if time was somehow in slow motion. All of a sudden, there were these impossibly bright lights right in front of me that just kept getting bigger and bigger. The sounds I heard were muffled, and yet it was as if it they were echoing from the walls within my head: the piercing, booming sound of a truck's horn.

I remembered hearing the sound as the two vehicles crashed into each other: screeching tires and the sound of glass breaking. Ah, yes… And the sound of Zane's and my own shocked and terrified screams.

Then there was a darkness for a while. I must have passed out because when I opened my eyes again, everything was quiet except for the sound of my own heartbeat that thrummed in my ears.

Thud, thud, thud…

My whole body ached. I was cold and I was shivering. My breath came out in a cloud of steam.

Then I remembered Zane. I tried to call out to him but my voice didn't work. In fact, it felt like something was pressing down on my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. I blinked a few times to try and get rid of the dizziness but it didn't work.

I slowly tuned my head to my right, finding it difficult to get my body to listen to me. I wish I hadn't.

Zane was still in the passenger seat next to me, leaning forward but kept up by the seat belt around his torso. The airbag must have activated because the white fabric was now deflated on the dashboard in front of him. His face was bruised and blood trickled down his nose. My mouth quivered and I felt the tears stream down my face, as I fought to find my voice.

"Zane…?" I finally croaked and grimaced at the pain that blossomed in my chest from the exercise. But there was no answer. A sob broke out from my lips and I tried to fight myself free from where I sat but I was stuck.

My breathing became faster and faster until I struggled with every gasp, barely letting go of one breath before I'd greedily swallow another. "Zane!" I called out again, this time much louder and far more panicked, but I got no answer.

The panic engulfed me and I struggled against my confinement, only vaguely realizing that what was keeping me in place was my steering wheel that had crushed down on me in the crash. Looking around fervently it dawned on me that we must have swerved off the road and then crashed into a huge rock. If I had been in my right mind I would have realized this was one of our country's beloved and protected so-called "elf rocks". But I was not in the right mind and neither would it have mattered since I didn't believe in the old folklores.

I reached out to Zane, my hand shaking. I was cold and numb. I couldn't feel my legs and my chest and stomach hurt so much. I managed to touch my brother's left temple but he didn't react "Zane?"

I didn't feel his body temperature. My hands were so numb. But if I couldn't feel his temperature then that meant we had the same temperature, right? And if we did, and I was alive, then he should also be alive, right?

…Right?

I didn't take my eyes off my brother. The blood that was trickling from his nose was also coming out of his mouth. His chest didn't move. There were no white puffs of smoke coming from his mouth like mine because of the cold atmosphere. And his neck was still in that weird, unnatural position.

My big brother was dead.

The silence of the bright summer night was soon disrupted by my grieving wail. I couldn't muster a very loud sound but it overcame the thudding in my ears. My limbs screamed in pain every time my sobs shook my body.

A while passed as I sat there alone. I wanted to hug my brother but I was stuck. I couldn't feel my lower body but I did a feel a warm, sticky sensation in my stomach area.

As my cries died out, I heard the thudding in my ears again, like drums rhythmically thumping to the beat of my heart.

Thud, thud, thud…

And it kept slowing. I could barely feel the cold after some time. I had cried so much but my tears didn't seem to be anywhere near drying up.

Thud, thud, thud…

Slower, ever slower… I felt myself get tired and I knew I was going to die. I didn't know how to feel about it. I didn't think I wanted to die. But I was just so tired…

Thud… Thud…Thud…

With the last bit of strength I had, I reached out to my brother. It was difficult and a small pain blossomed in my stomach again after a while, but I grit my teeth through it. I managed to grab the hand of my brother. I couldn't feel the sensation of his hand, my hand was so numb, but I saw his hand grabbed in mine and that's all the proof I needed that he was there with me.

"I'm so sorry." I croaked which ensued a coughing fit. My eyes were still leaking, the only sensation I still felt being the warm trail of water that trickled down from my eyes.

Thud… Thud… Thud…

I kept my eyes locked on our intertwined hands as my eyelids became heavier.

And I fell asleep.

* * *

THUD THUD THUD

I gasped and bolted upright in my bed.

"Rise and shine, lassie, another morn has risen!"

I was still panting but I managed a half croaked "Just a sec!" Before I scrambled out of bed and snatched my pants off the floor.

I hurriedly made my way towards the door as soon as I managed to pull my pants to my hips and was just about to open it when my senses came back to me. My pants had been on the floor in front of the unlit fireplace, just where I had left them the night before. My bare toes were touching cold stone floor and the bed I had woken up in certainly wasn't mine.

There was some more banging at my door, followed by the same unfamiliar voice that had woken me up a minute prior, "'ey, lassie, ya all right in there?"

My heart began to pump harder in my chest. feverishly, I looked around, swiping my far too long bangs out of my face as I did so, and realized with dread that I was in the same place as where I had fallen asleep the night before.

I was still in Kharanos.

With shaking hands, I reached for the key in the lock and turned it slowly before carefully opening the door just a crack.

"Ah, there ya are. I was startin' to ponder whether I shoulda broken up the darn door."

Outside my door was a dwarf with a shiny, bald head and long, bushy orange beard with two braids in it. He wore brown overalls over a red, long-sleeved shirt and under his arm was a light brown fisherman's hat.

"...Who are you?" I asked tentatively once I was sure the the dwarf hadn't gone to the wrong door, seeing as he hadn't apologized sheepishly and scurried off upon seeing my face.

"Ah, where are me manners," he muttered before nodding slightly at me, "the name's Drumrick Goldengrog, but everyone calls me Shiny Drum, pleased to meet yer acquaintance."

I quick glance at his shiny head gave me a hint as to where his nickname came from, but I kept that theory to myself. To be honest, I was getting rather agitated by this dwarf that had so noisily woken me up- though, admittedly, I was glad to be rid of my nightmare. "Can I help you with anything, mister Drumrick?" I asked him, getting to the point but hanging on to my well-trained manners.

"On the contrary!" The dwarf grinned, "I'm here to help you."

I furrowed my brows at that. "What do you-"

Before I could finish my question I was yanked out from behind my door and out into the hallway. I stumbled before I managed to steady myself and was about to lash out at the miniature creature when something else caught my full attention.

Right in front of me was a large circle of brilliant shining lights in multitudes of colors that seemed to dance with one another. The circle reminded me of a mirror, and yet where the reflection of me should have been, there was some kind of an image that I couldn't quite grasp. Like an unstable reflection in rippled water.

Before I could find the words of which to describe this scenery, or remember who exactly I was sharing this magical moment with, I felt a sturdy sensation at my back before I was pushed into the mirror of lights. And through it.

I doubted I could ever reasonably describe the sensation that followed. It was as if there was no gravity in existence, and yet I was falling. As if I kept dropping down endlessly, and yet somehow I wasn't sure if where I was going was 'down'. Or whether I was going anywhere at all.

And then the sensation ended almost as quickly as it began, despite it having felt like it lasted for the longest of times during it. I was shot out of the mirror of lights and found myself sprawled on wooden floorboards.

"Nothin' like the first trip through a portal, eh, lassie?"


	4. Chapter 4

I put my hands in front of me and watched them shake with effort as I slowly pulled myself up onto all fours. I forced down the nausea that was threatening to overwhelm me from my trip through the mirror of paradox. When I was sure I wasn't going to throw up on the wooden floor panels, I slowly raised my head to look around me.

I found three different pair of eyes staring at me, instantly spreading goosebumps on my skin. I didn't like being stared at. Or any attention at all.

The first pair of eyes were dim grey, belonging to a beautiful young woman with strawberry blonde hair in a dress of a regal purple shade with golden patterns. She had an inviting, yet slightly mischievous smile on her lips. The woman was sitting in a pretty relaxed position in a chair under a window, eyeing me with something aching to glee. Like she was expecting me to entertain her.

The second pair of eyes were amber colored ones on the face of a middle aged man with black, messy, shoulder length hair and a full beard, kept relatively short. The man wore a black robe with grey linings at the hem and had a worn leather belt around his middle. He stood with his back half to me in front of a large bookcase, hands behind his back. Something about his stare was more chilling than the others.

The third pair were an uncomfortably familiar shade of grey blue. Uncomfortable in the way that I felt I knew those eyes, that I had spent a long time memorizing that exact hue of blue- and yet those eyes were on a completely unfamiliar face. They didn't belong above that straight nose, under those dark brown, furrowed eyebrows. I tried to break away from their stare in favor of getting a complete look at the owner of those eyes, taking in the muscular form that was sitting on a chair across from the other two, his broad back turned to me. His face was that of a young man, relatively handsome in a messy kind of way- mostly due to his chaotic hair and a couple of days old stubble covering the lower part of his face.

"All right lass, let's get ye up" The dwarven voice from the inn sounded behind me before I felt a strong hand on my upper arm, heaving me up. My body felt like dough as I struggled to find my balance but after a few moments, I managed and shrugged the large hand off me.

"Well then, since we're all accounted for, let's begin the introduction, yeah?" The dwarf continued, "This handsome devil over yonder is Melton Alvingham. He doesn't talk much but don't let that get to ye." The raven haired man in the black robe nodded in greeting. I didn't respond to his gesture, my head reeling.

"And this lovely dame," the dwarf gestured towards the blonde woman with the knowing smile, "is headmistress Wanda Claridge."

"She's far quieter than her brother" The woman remarked and the world around me stopped. I felt as if the wind had been kicked out of me and found the familiar feeling of fear crawl up my spine, along with an unfamiliar sense of anger,

"Where is he?" I asked, my voice betrayed by the slightest of tremors

"Where's Zane?" I asked again, this time more forceful.

I watched as the woman's smile stretched out, reminding me of the cheshire cat. It only served to fuel my anger and I felt my body grow cold with it. My hands formed into fists that were hidden under the far too long sleeves of my shirt.

"...Ruth?"

My head whipped to the younger male in the middle of the room. His grey blue eyes were looking at me widely, questioningly. I stared back, strangely drawn in by those eyes. I felt my anger dissipate for some reason. Then I saw it. It had been there for a split second only, the ghost of an image of a scrawny young man with blond hair and the exact same hue of blue in his eyes.

"Zane?" I croaked. It couldn't be. And yet…

"Aye, lass, the last of the bunch is Zane, no last name. But I doubt I'mma have to introduce yer very own brother, hm?"

I simply stared. I couldn't form words in my head and wasn't about to mumble some gibberish, so I kept my mouth shut while my head tried to calm the storm of thoughts within it. "Here, let's get ye seated, yeah? We'll explain, lass, that's why we're here, don't worry yer pretty little head."

I let the dwarf take a hold on my arm again and dumbly followed as he led me to a chair right next to the messy haired, young man. This was Zane? But how? What happened to him?

"Good then," Drum sighed, a pleased smile on his lips, "now that we're all here and relatively calm, let us begin this meeting. Zane, Ruth, it's a pleasure to finally meet the two of ye. We've been expecting ye for quite some time now, let me tell ya."

I had a hard time listening to the dwarven man's words in between his thick scottish accent and me trying to accept the fact that the handsome young man on the chair beside me was actually my brother- who was staring at me like an animal in a zoo, along with three other people in the very same room with expression varying from puzzlement, amusement, excitement and nonchalance.

Yeah, my attention span was shortening with every second.

"We know exactly what yer going through at the moment. Ye are confused, frightened and maybe feelin a little insane. Though I can't testify to yer sanity, I can tell ye that ye are safe here with us and that we will try to explain everything to ye as well as we can, yeah?"

The dwarf paused and I realized after a while he was waiting to see if we were following him so far. I nodded slowly, signaling him to continue. I was feeling sick and I had a killer headache but the heavens knew I needed some answers or I really would go insane.

"Excellent," Drum continued, "now, ye might find this hard to believe but the three of us here, along with a handful of others, have all been in yer shoes before. We came from a different reality- planet Earth, to be exact- and once we died, we woke up again in this reality. In Azeroth.

"Azeroth, you see, is a world full of wonder. Sights you'd never though would be possible to ever see, people you hoped you never would meet and magic! That's right, I swear on me name, I jest ye not: magic. It sounds preposterous, no doubt, but the two of ye have been here long enoigh- ye must have seen things in the last few days that made you feel ye were losing a few screws. But here I am, a humble dwarf, telling ye to have faith, 'tis all true."

Drum took a dramatic pause while he examined our faces, likely to see how we were taking his lecture so far. I was gripping my shirt tightly around my legs from the time where he mentioned we were dead. I knew it, but apparently I had held to the tiniest hope that all of this was just a very weird, long dream.

And then there was the affirmation I had been seeking all this time. Here this dwarf stood, telling us we were in Azeroth. It had been confirmed.

I had finally lost it.

Zane seemed to be more confused than anything, I noted when I turned to see how he was taking this. I then watched as his furrowed brows unwrinkled and the tiniest tug at the corner of his lips appeared as he faced me. "Told you. I knew this was World of Warcraft."

A sudden urge to punch that self-satisfied smirk off his face washed over me, but a small breadcrumb of grace somewhere inside my core stopped me. "And I agreed with you," I said between my gritted teeth, "I merely noted that there was no reasonable way we could be there because that's insane!"

For a moment, I had forgotten where I was and in which company but the shame was not far away once I remembered. I felt my ears warm up and I sweat formed in my ice cold palms.

"World… of Warcraft?" Drum asked after a long, suffocating period of silence. I was confused by his look of bewilderment. Had he never heard of WoW? Didn't he say there were a handful of us here? Was it even possible that none of them had known that this world was recognized on Earth in the form of a video game? I suddenly realised that telling them this world was known as a video game might not be the best of ideas.

"Yeah, though we usually just call it WoW. It's a computer game, haven't you heard of it before?"

But, of course, I had an idiot for a brother.

The silence in the room was suffocating. It was a long while before I managed to raise my head from the suddenly interesting, old floorboards to face the people in the room. I almost regretted it.

Wanda, the woman who had been situated under the window, spoke up first, her amused expression completely wiped off, replaced by an angry calm. I felt myself shudder at the sight, and my muscles tightened up, as if they were ready for me to make a run for it. I tried to calm myself down.

"You mean to tell us" the woman said through clenched jaws, "that you've already been acquainted with this world in the form of a simple game?"

It felt as if the room had suddenly gotten colder. The hairs on my arms and neck stood up and I swallowed with difficulty. The smiling, taunting woman from before seemed so dangerous now… So powerful.

I only hoped that Zane caught up on this dangerous atmosphere and kept his mouth shut.

"Yeah it's really popular, me and Ruth used to play it a lot."

And, then again, he wouldn't be my brother if he'd kept his mouth shut.

The old floorboards at my feet seemed so enticing in that moment, but I forced myself to look at the three strangers in front of us, I needed to know if I was in danger. Unconsciously, I began to look for escape routes and I noted the two windows in the room, along with a single wooden door behind us.

"That… Certainly is news to us, I must admit," Drum finally said, "Naturally, we have some questions regarding this new piece of information, but we will have time for that later, hm?" The question didn't seem to be directed at Zane and I, and I watched with silent apprehension whether the dwarf's words would be enough to dissipate the threatening aura that had so quickly filled the room.

Seconds- maybe minutes- passed in silent conversations before finally, Wanda quietly sat back down. I hadn't even noticed her standing up, such had been my panic. The man in the back of the room, who's name by now had escaped me, also seemed to have decided on a retreat- though something told me it would only be temporary.

A shudder ran through me as the air in the room slowly became breathable again and I took a deep, grounding breath.

"Is everything okay?" Zane finally asked and I had to squeeze my hands into fists, feeling the prickling sensation of fingernails in my palms to refrain from whacking him for being so atmospherically blind.

"Aye, lad, nothin' ta worry about." Drum replied, "This piece of information ye just gave us was simply surprising, is all. I never thought the new arrivals would be the ones giving us information." He chuckled, before clearing his throat. "Moving on," he made a single clap of his two rather unproportionally large hands, "it seems that we perhaps need not explain as much as we thought at first, which saves us some time.

"As I was telling ye before, ye are not the only ones to have found yerselves in this rather absurd situation, in fact, there are quite a handful of us in this world. We've come to call ourselves 'leapers', and we have a rather large network throughout Azeroth.

"The transaction- or 'leap', as we call it- of the soul between two worlds can of course be quite confusing for just about anyone, but it was a few decades ago that we realized we were not the only ones. We found each other, through hard work, obstinacy and with some help from magic, of course, and came to form some kind of a 'comfort group'-"

The blonde woman behind the dwarf snorted at that,

"And when we believed we were all gathered, or all of us that wished to be a part of our network, that is, we used the same means we used to find each other, to foresee the coming of new leapers. If we could do this, perhaps we could take some force from the trauma, help them with the transaction that so many of us struggled with, and that is why we are here." Drum spread out his arms, "we are yer welcoming committee." He ended with a satisfied smile, brown eyes sparkling behind those ridiculously bushy eyebrows of his.

I wasn't sure if he was expecting us to applaud, but I sat still, not really knowing what to do. It was good to have some information about what was going on, but this was almost too much to take in at once, and I found my head pounding while trying to keep up with this information.

"Any questions?"

I mulled it over for a while, searching for a reasonable question that would hopefully not anger anyone. Of course, 'reasonable' and 'careful' were not my brother's forte.

"Why are you a dwarf?" There was genuine curiosity written on Zane's face.

The dwarf blinked, "I beg yer pardon?"

"Well, if you came from our world, then you must have once been human, right? But then why are you a dwarf now? And why are the rest of us human?"

When he put it like that, I guess I was rather curious to know the answer myself.

I watched as Drum puffed up like a balloon waiting to pop- this was clearly a sore subject. "Well, We can't all just be perfect little humies, now can we?"

"Why not?" I almost winced at Zane's tactlessness but found myself fidgeting slightly in my seat instead.

"Actually," Wanda surprised me by speaking up after all this time, "we, too, have speculated much about the reason behind the selection of races. In our network of leapers, most of as are, indeed, human, but there are also a handful of other races such as dwarves, elves and a gnome."

I couldn't help but be surprised at that. To go from being a human to a gnome must have been a largely difficult transiction- no pun intended.

"We do not know for sure the reason for this variety," She continued, "but we have deduced it may have something to do with our personalities. Drum here, for example, is a natural explorer, as are all of the other dwarves in our network. They are also very emotional." She added with a smirk directed at Drum, who simply nodded at that.

"The elves seem to be calm in nature, value solitary to a degree and are very wise. It also so happens that both of them died at an older age than most of us, which explains a lot about their nature." I nodded along to her explanation, taking it all in.

"Then what about humans?" Zane asked, voicing the question in my own head.

"We humans," she began, "seem to be the most flawed." I raised an eyebrow at that, but otherwise kept my mouth shut. I was good at that.

"We are curious in nature," she explained, "often times reckless, most often secretive and untrusting."

"Now, lassie," Drum intersected, "Don't be so pessimistic. He gave Zane and I another one of his warm smiles. "You are indeed curious, and therefore constantly seek knowledge. This is an admirable trait," he nodded once, for empathizes, "Reckless, is just another word for bravery, and while most of ye do, indeed, have some trust issues," he glanced at Wanda, amused, "ye oftentimes make the most loyal friends once ye allow yerself to open up to others."

He had a way with words that dwarf, I'd give him that. There was a pause of silence, everyone no doubt mulling over their own thoughts. The pause, however, was interrupted by the sounds of a clearing throat, and everyone turned to look at the silent, dark-cled man in the back of the room, back still turned to us, eyeing the huge bookshelf in front of him. It was the first time anything had been heard from him all this time.

"Right," Drum said with a nod, an unspoken message seemingly received. "This greeting should be complete by now. Zane, Ruth, the heavens know this has all been a lot to take in, and ye no doubt have many unanswered questions still, but we have plenty of time.

"We do deem it necessary, however, to name one rule to ye that you must absolutely follow without the tiniest exception"

It was the first time the dwarf actually looked serious, and I found myself straightening up in my seat.

"It is very important that the information ye just received, regarding the leapers, our network, and any- and everything that has the slightest to do about planet Earth or yer previous lives stays as the top of everything secret. This is the one, most sacred rule, and it is for yer own protection as well as ours. Before we let ye leave this room, we will need ye to swear on this rule."

He wasn't being threatening, per se, but the seriousness of this message was very clear. Heck, even Zane looked serious which was for the first time this morning... or afternoon... or whatever the heck the time it was. I remembered that the three people of our welcoming committee were waiting for our reply.

"Yeah, sure." I heard Zane say from beside me. Drum nodded once in affirmation and then his deep brown gaze fell on me. I nodded, slowly but surely.

"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to hear ye say it, lass."

I found my ears heat up again. I had never been good at speaking on command. But I wasn't like my brother. I knew this was serious. I took a shaky breath,

"I swear."

The moment I said it, Drum lit up "excellent! Sorry about the sudden seriousness but it's standard procedure." He chuckled. "Anyways, with all that boring stuff out of the way, we're finally all done here. Ah, but I have an offer for the two of ye! Ye see, his loft," he gestured to the space around us, "belongs to my very own inn. I would like to extend to ye an invitation to stay here, free of charge, of course, while ye get yer feet back under ye. I will try my very best to inform ye of every thing about this world ye may need to know, until yer next journey." He looked at us each expectantly.

"What do ye say?"

This was a very generous offer no doubt, and I couldn't really see a reason as to why not to take him up on it, but I would make no decisions without the consent of my brother. I turned my head to face him, realizing he was already waiting for my opinion. I lifted my shoulder just slightly in response, to which Zane nodded and looked back at the dwarf.

"We accept your offer, thank you." I was satisfied with his manners this time around, glad that he hadn't forgotten everything our mama taught us during the leap.

"Excellent!" Drum roared, positively beaming.

"Well then, we'll say our goodbyes here," Wanda said, standing up and making her way towards us. She stretched out her hand towards me and I had to shake my long sleeve down my arm in order to grab her hand. I looked into her stormy grey eyes, and though her face belied amusement once again, there was another message hidden in her eyes. It made me uncomfortable and I tried not to make my eagerness obvious when I took my hand back.

"I'll see you two around," she said while shaking my brother's hand as well, before she moved towards the door behind us, where she stopped and streched out both of her hands. I watched in amazement as dazzingly blue and golden circles of light appeared around her palms, growing steadily before morphing into one big circle, until it had reached the same size as her.

She gestured towards the dark, mysterious man to come forth, which he did, nodding once as a greeting before stepping into the brilliant mirror of lights, disappearing as he did, followed by the waving Wanda.

A few seconds after they were both gone, the circle of dazzling light grew smaller and smaller before disappearing altogether, leaving stars in my eyes and Zane gaping beside me.

"Show off." Drum chuckled, breaking the silence. "Now let's go find the two of ye something to eat. Ye look skinny as a night elf!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

I just wanted to say a quick thank you for those who have followed and/or favorited so far. It means a lot, so thanks!


	5. Chapter 5

"My, ye sure can eat for someone of yer size, lass."

I swallowed the rather large mouthful of stew, eyeing the orange bearded dwarf as he came in with another tray of something that looked like chicken. I ignored his rather rude statement in favor of closing my mouth around another spoonful of the delicious, warm stew.

I was a stress eater who had been nearly starved for a week with plenty of stressful thing rattling in my head. I felt like a bottomless pit, and I guess I looked it as well, considering Drum's remark.

Zane sat in the chair next to me, rubbing his stomach with an exhausted, yet contempt look on his face. He had stopped eating ten minutes ago, leaving leftovers that quickly disappeared, my mouth chewing before I even registered it.

I would never waste food ever again, I vowed while glaring at my brother for forgetting already the growls and roars of his own stomach.

Another ten minutes passed before I was satisfied. The beast in the pit had been sated.

"You're finished then?" Drum's eyes were the size of teacups as they had been since he finally sat down a few minutes before.

"Christ, sis, you're an animal"

I tried to glare but didn't manage to put any venom behind it.

"Well, now that yer stomachs are full, I would like to have a chat with ye, if yer up for it?"

I shrugged and Zane replied with a "sure".

"Well then," Drum began, "what I've been dying to know- figuratively speaking, of course- is how you managed to stay together through your journey to Kharanos? Did ye awaken in the same place? In the same time? And now that I think about it, how come ye hadn't noticed each other's changed appearances until in my loft this morning?"

I mulled this over, chewing my bottom lip as I categorized each question and tried to find an answer to each one. I hadn't thought about any of this before but it was strange. When I woke up all those days ago on the river bank, Zane was already there, worried eyes scanning my face for injuries or recognition, and I knew without a doubt that that was Zane.

I just knew it was him. And yet, now that I really though about it, I couldn't remember what he looked like during those days of trekking through the woods. But I remembered his eyes.

"Huh" the idiot next to me said, "I have no idea."

I rolled my eyes, but then realised, despite everything I had been thinking so far, I didn't really have a straightforward answer either. 'I just knew' wasn't really an educated answer.

The dwarf eyed us for a moment before speaking "Right then, let's put that one on hold for the time being, yeah?"

"I have a question" Drum and I both looked at Zane, curious.

"Why are we here?"

With that one question, my whole body went cold and my fingers twitched. Didn't he know?

I very slowly turned my head towards Drum, whose face morphed from surprise to concern in the span of a few seconds. He glanced at me, but I didn't know which facial expression he received. I did notice the puzzlement on his face before he turned back to Zane who was waiting patiently.

Oh god, how would he take the news?

"I thought you were aware," Drum began, clearing his throat, "I'm sorry to tell you, lad, but ye're here because ye died. Back on Earth, before you lept, I mean. Ye're dead."

I was beginning to feel sick and my body was shaking with anxiety.

I realized as I tried to decipher the expression on my brother's face, that I couldn't. The idiot who had always been an open book to to me was a blank page. I didn't know what was going on in his head and that, more than anything, scared me.

"No I'm not" my brother finally said, and my head shot towards Drum.

"Er, no, perhaps that was poorly phrased on my part, I apologise," he cleared his throat oncr again, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"yer not dead over here, of course, but back on Earth ye died. Both of ye did. But ye were lucky, ye see, because yer special. Yer souls had something extraordinary in them, something that allowed ye to leap across realities- to this world. Ye had so much left in ye that yer souls, yer essence managed to travel all this way, where ye were granted another chance at life.

"So lad, try and see this, not as a loss but as an opportunity. Of course, yer allowed to grief, but in the end I hope ye can be glad ye had his chance."

The dwarf then glanced up at me, "and besides, yer far luckier than most of us. Yer the first lepers who come through at the same time- the first ones to share a past life. That too, is a blessing not to be taken lightly."

A long while passed where no one said a word. Drum, most likely giving us time to take it all in; Zane presumably piecing everything together, trying to make sense of things; and me, waiting for the accusing stare of my favorite person in the world.

The minutes passed without a word being uttered and I was starting to feel lightheaded from my quiet panicking.

Finally, Zane looked up from the wooden dining table, eyes watery, a clear sign the reality of our situation had actually sunk in, and with the most vulnerable expression I had ever seen on his face, he simply asked "how?"

I stared at him, completely lost for words. Did this mean that even now he hadn't remembered anything from from that night? The memories hadn't finally flooded in even after he finally realised that we were, in fact, dead?

"I see." Drum said with a serious face, stroking through his large beard. "Memory loss isn't unusual in this situation. The memories might come back to ye after some time- or maybe they won't, there's no way of really knowing. Personally, I think yer better off not remembering the trauma of yer own death. That memory has been close to driving half of us mad, let me tell ye. How about ye, lass, do you remember?"

I opened my mouth to answer, only to close it once again. How about me, indeed.

Of course, I knew what had happened that night. I remembered with sickening clarity every detail of our last moments. And Zane would probably remember them later on. It was likely, yet indeed, not but a probability still.

I wet my lips, my mouth suddenly dry as sandpaper. Zane had the right to know. Didn't he? It would be selfish of me to keep that information to myself. And yet… how could I possibly tell him, my best friend, my rock, that I was the one that killed us?

My mind flashed back to the moment I saw my brother's face in the car, bloody and bruised… Lifeless. He had died on impact, I was almost sure, so perhaps there wouldn't really be any memories for him to recall in the first place?

I looked at the two faces in front of me, concern evident in both of them. Thy needed a reply.

"I…"

I croaked, my mind going faster than I believe it ever had in both my lives.

"I don't recall."

The silence that followed was suffocating. Any second I prepared myself to be called out on the obvious lie, barely allowing myself to breathe- perhaps they would hear my lungs scream out 'liar!' if I allowed them too much air.

"That's okay, lass," Drum finally said. "Believe me, it might be better that way. Don't beat yerself up about it." The dwarf's dark brown eyes conveyed understanding and the tiniest undertone of pity.

I let out a long, shaky breath before nodding once. I steeled myself to look at my brother, trying to read what was going through his mind, but his head was slightly lowered, eyes staring intently at the table in front of him.

Panic settled in once again. He knew, he had realised I was lying. Had he remembered all of a sudden?

"Zane," I said, panic almost affecting my tone but just barely under control.

"I'm so sorry, I-" Zane looked up, surprise on his face, quickly overwritten with guilt.

"Oh no, don't apologize, it's not your fault," he said, and my brain stopped in its tracks.

"I can't remember either, right? So it's not your fault. It's just… annoying, is all. I don't like the thought of having died without knowing about it, ya know? But maybe Drum's right, maybe we are better off not knowing. I mean, what if we died in pain or something? It would suck to have that memory with you everywhere."

I shuddered, but hoped it would be seen as an affirmation of Zane's statement.

Yeah, that would definitely be unpleasant.

Zane sighed, deeply, like an old man. It didn't suit him. He had always been the carefree one. I was the responsible one that heaved long sighs. Responsible one. I nearly laughed, bitterness coiling around my stomach. How I had utterly failed that job.

There was a long moment where we all just sat there, each in our own world, but eventually, Drum spoke up.

He began chatting about his inn that we were currently residing in, his pride and joy. Had won it in a bet with some other dwarf during a Belfast festival. He told us all kinds of stories about the adventures he had been on, the people he had met and the things he had learned.

He told us about magic, about how real it was, how dangerous and utterly breathtaking.

And he kept talking.

After a while he had managed to clear out the heavy air. At one point, he went to fetch refreshments from the kitchen in the next room behind the bar, all without seizing his endless storytelling. And I was grateful.

It wasn't until evening, when we had eaten dinner and we're relaxing with some cookies and tea (for me) and cocoa (for Zane) that the exhaustion kicked in. The stress of the day finally caught up to me, and I found myself frequently covering my yawns with my shirt-covered hand.

Eventually, Drum paused his endless stream of words and smiled at us warmly, "The two of ye look like ye could use a nap."

I didn't say anything, but Zane stretched out his long limbs and said "Feel like I could sleep for a month."

The dwarf chuckled at that before rising up from his chair and beckoning for us to follow him. "Come along, young'uns" he said and we both stood up to stagger behind him. Man, I was stiff after all that sitting.

Drum lead us upstairs where the bedrooms were kept, and showed us our rooms. They were in the far right corner, Zane's at the end of the hall and mine next to his.

Drum showed us us how to light the fireplace, with a stern note not to keep it burning while we slept; where to put out very scarce set of clothes while we slept, with the promise of getting us some new ones very soon; and finally told us to go about his inn as if it were our homes.

He then gave us each a key to our bedrooms before bidding us a good night, reminding us that his bedroom, should we need him, was below the kitchen. He then patted us on our shoulders and left.

Zane and I stood in silence for a while before Zane took a step forward and put his arms around me in a hug. I stood still for a moment before returning the gesture, finding myself fighting the urge to bawl my eyes out and snot out his shirt.

"I still don't really know what's going on," he said and I closed my eyes to the prickling sensation in my nose, "but I'm glad you're here with me. I can't imagine having to go through this alone."

The hug lasted for a minute or so longer, before he finally pushed himself back and put a large hand on my head.

"I love you, little sister. Good night."

I managed to huff out a "'night" before he turned around and walked towards his bedroom. He gave me a last warm smile before he closed the door behind him.

I almost collapsed on the floor the moment I heard the 'click' of the lock being turned, but managed to stay on my feet long enough to reach my own door and closing it quietly behind me. I listened as my brother went around his room, preparing to go to bed, struggling with his pants, hearing a thud and a low 'ow' as he fell over. The ruffle of sheets, creaking of a bed…

My feet gave out underneath me and I slid down along the door. I sat there for a while, dazed, as I went through everything that had happened that day, categorized it and admitted it all to memory. At last, I recalled the sincere expression on my brothers face as he said he loved me and I knew I could never tell him the truth, ever.

He was my rock and I could never allow it to shatter. It was selfish, but I had never really been all that noble.

I didn't notice the tears leaking down my face before they dripped down soaking my pants at my knees. I was surprised at first, bringing up my hands to dry the tears away.

But they kept coming down in endless streams. I heard a light snoring in the room beside mine and I choked out a sob before covering my mouth with my hands. I brought my knees in closer, hugging them close to my chest and burying my face in them. My body shook with silent sobs as the night covered the land.

Sixth night in Azeroth. And I had never felt so alone.


End file.
